UKH

space exploration!

What's been the year's highlights?

SpaceX's crew mission to the ISS?

Japan's amazing Hayabusa2 sample delivery?

China's Chang'e 5 moon sampling?

In reply to Flinticus:

Although it's more the engineering that'll assist future space exploration, watching Starship almost land last week is pretty high on my good-things-in-2020 list. I keep across SpaceX more than most admittedly. 

In reply to Flinticus:

I've explored the space around where I live more thoroughly than ever before.

In reply to kwoods:

The weather was mainly great when the first lockdown was on. It was amazingly quiet on the roads.

In reply to Flinticus:

Mr and Mrs Blackbirds nesting season and in particular seeing three of one of their speckly broods relaxing after a group bathing session by fluffing themselves up and lying in the sun together just outside the back door

In reply to Flinticus:

Developing, testing and getting a mRNA vaccine authorised for use in less than a year is one of the most astounding achievements of humankind ever.

In reply to Flinticus:

Zodiac's Z340 cracked after 51 years!

youtube.com/watch?v=-1oQLPRE21o&

COVID vaccine development was definitely pretty incredible from a collaboration & science PoV.

In reply to Flinticus:

I've still got £200 of the £300 in my wallet which I withdrew in March!

In reply to Shani:

Yes, I watched that after the original posting here. Couldn't follow it all but fascinating nonetheless. Cracked by tech beyond the dreams of the killer when creating the code and human perspective.

In reply to Flinticus:

I'm gutted my earlier post never got traction! I thought UKC would light up on this news about Z340. I thought we were awash with geeks!

I've long been fascinated by crime, codes/secrecy, and these ciphers/this case in particular. If you haven'tdone so already I'd recommend you watch all 5 parts of "Let's Crack Zodiac" as it is a highly accessible demonstration of frequency analysis and pattern matching in code breaking. (Simon Singh's The Code Book is also worth reading.)

In reply to Shani:

But also awash with pedants - possibly the space-focussed OP deflected the 'serial killer cryptography' demographic to other threads

In reply to Flinticus:

982MHz narrowband signals that may be extraterrestrial in origin

In reply to Flinticus:

We realised that the majority of office workers didn't need to commute everyday causing congestion and pollution, and could be effective from home.........................which is exactly what nearly every digital task based office worker has been saying for the last ten years.  Only its taken a pandemic for senior management to accept its true rather than being a doss ploy by the troops.

Post covid (if I still have a job) it will be two days a week from home, in one fell swoop a significant environmental benefit.

In reply to nufkin:

Am I in the 'serial killer cryptography' demographic or do I roll with the pedants and point out your spelling of 'focused'?

2020 continues to challenge me.

In reply to ScraggyGoat:

Companies have realised they can take the piss by using employees homes as their office space for free, without having to bother with H&S.  Meanwhile new starters are completely out in the cold and experienced workers miss both companionship and the ability to bounce ideas around.

The new norm has to be somewhere between, because the majority are not as productive working alone on their kitchen table.

In reply to Shani:

I'm flushed with shame.

Probably the Venn diagram of 'folks interested in space geekery' and 'folks interested in coded messages from murderers' actually has quite a bit of coloured-in area. With a fair amount of overlap if 'keen on proper spelling' is added too

In reply to nufkin:

I've found my people! 😊

In reply to Flinticus:

Lots of high lights. 

As previously mentioned, the lovely weather and quiet roads through the first lockdown. For me, that was a chance to enjoy cycling and develop an interest in photographing garden birds.

The scientific triumph of developing multiple effective vaccines to show what can be done when humanity puts its mind and resources to a task.

That orange loser Trump losing, (did I mention that he was a loser?) securing a place in history as the first one term US president in 27 years and the first to win an election off the opposing party then to fail to secure re-election since Jimmy Carter, 40 years ago.

Priti Patel lightening the political mood by releasing those hilarious spoof ideas of a supposed brainstorming session of ideas to keep illegal immigrants from crossing the channel - floating walls, wave machines, big fans... I'm still laughing at the surreal inventiveness of it all. I bet the real policy is really boring, like increasing aid to the countries people are desperate to leave and working with neighbouring countries they have to cross to get here,

And we saw a fox and a badger (not together) in the garden.

In reply to Flinticus:

.... all of us working from home meaning we have some spare carbon budget to loft stuff into space.

In reply to NathanP: Trump losing was definitely a hi-light, one less worrying person in a position of great power. 

In reply to Flinticus:

Great thread. A reminder that it’s not all been a disaster. Though it’s mostly been a disaster...

In reply to Flinticus:

After over 150 job applications and endless effort my son got his first job. Massive celebrations all round.

It opened my eyes as to what a really sh*t year its been for youngsters. 

In reply to Flinticus:

Capt (Now Hon Colonel) Sir Tom Moore's remarkable achievement in raising £33 Million for the NHS. A firm but modest old gentleman not puffed up with self importance.

In reply to Flinticus:

It has been good watching the Orange One get his comeuppance, and perversely I've enjoyed watching his soul brother here in the UK gradually disintegrate. It's been a  very public demonstration that being a journalist with a talent for bashing off amusing pieces unfettered by any sort of requirement for truthfulness, is no qualification at all for a proper job. It's been like watching a rubbish teacher terminally lose control of a tough class - like the teacher he'll have to go, sooner rather than later.

In reply to NathanP:

I've now extended the range of wild birds that have taken food from my hand: coal tits, great tits and, this morning, the first blue tit, pearching delicately on the tip of my middle finger.  

I've also engaged in some guerilla bird boxing!

In reply to Rob Exile Ward:

I would be more satisfied if their support base was also irrevocably eroded.

In reply to Flinticus:

That's an impressive selection. Only robins and herring gulls for me - and the latter wasn't so much from my hand as out of my hand when I wasn't expecting it!

In reply to Reach>Talent:

I must stress I'm ignorant of the actual chemistry, but I assumed the carbon cost of space launches is actually pretty low, despite the dramatics - just hydrogen and oxygen, is it not? 

In reply to Flinticus:

What’s all this science bollocks. Surely the best thing of 2020 is Bill Bailey winning Strictly. 

In reply to Flinticus:

Marcus Rashford

In reply to nufkin:

In the actual launch process, I think that's correct. However, the normal process for making the hyrdrogen has a heavy CO2 cost and making complex manufactured items like a spacecraft and flying people round the world to launch them uses CO2. Of course we (on a global scale) make so few spacecraft that the absolute total CO2 cost is trivial compared to billions doing everyday things like eating, living in houses, driving petrol or diesel cars or having their central heating or air con switched on...

In reply to nufkin:

Blue Origin use hydrogen, but haven't launched many rockets. SpaceX use paraffin/kerosene in their Merlin engines and liquid methane in their Raptor engines and have launched loads, and created tons of CO2 in the process. Still small beer compared to a gas-fired power station though...